Mt. Tide

I love laundry. Before the snorting begins, let me re-phrase. Of all the household chores there are, laundry is the least of all evils for me. I hold it up against, say, unloading the dishwasher, a chore I hate beyond all chores. Why is this you ask? I really have no idea, but it must be rooted in childhood somewhere. Laundry and dishes (clean ones) are essentially similar in nature, and actually, the dishwasher only takes about 5 minutes. I've timed it. Many may disagree, but there is something very satisfying in clean clothes, and something very tedious and tiresome in unloading a dishwasher.

Despite the fact that I have enough laundry to do at least 3-4 loads per day (which I don't do, so it piles up, hence the title of this blog), laundry isn't such a stretch for me. I love the peacefulness of sitting on the couch during naptime, watching my dvr'ed Vampire Diaries on TV and folding basket after basket of clean, soft, fresh-smelling laundry. I love looking at each article of clothing and thinking about the child (or husband) it belongs to, and how much they love it. It is also a very effective way of promoting hand-me-downs. When I see one of my kids wearing something that doesn't fit anymore, I make a mental note that next time it comes through, it goes in the younger kid's pile.

I admit that I am very "type A" about folding laundry. I don't care so much if it wrinkles, as it often does because it has sat in a basket for two days, but I like the towels to be just so, the shirts to be even and the jeans to be smoothed out. When my kids fold it for me, I have to resist doing it over, or at least do it over when they can't see. I may not have control over very much, but I do have control over whether the towels are folded in thirds (they stack better that way). If my neighborhood didn't have covenants forbidding it, I truly would have an outdoor line because there is something very therapeutic and calming in going through the motions of pinning out clean clothes and taking down clothes that have been dried in the sun. I have lived this way before, so I know of what I speak.

This has been discussed before with my bible study friends many, many times. I consider us very lucky as women and moms to have this absolute normalcy that we can depend on. There may be world wars going on, the financial system of our country might be going down the tubes, but our kids will always need clean clothes and we will be the ones to provide. In places where we have had devastation, Louisiana after Katrina, the recent floods here in Georgia where people lost everything, I have seen stories about what makes people the most happy. Clean clothes are right at the top of their lists. There is something about being able to get into a freshly made bed at night or laying out your clean clothes for the next day that lifts the spirits, calms the anxieties and makes you feel in control of something for once. We as moms get to always rely on the basics and the necessities in our lives to keep us sane. There isn't one thing we can do about some things in life; many, many things we have no control over. But we can have clean laundry. - K